Rabbits blog 9
Date: 25th Nov 2023 @ 5:16am
25th November 2023
I hope you enjoyed our parent progress meetings as much as I did. It was lovely to be able to tell you so much positive stuff about your child. And there is a lot of positive stuff to say. The class as a collective has come a long way even since October half term. I am proud of them!
It feels as if Christmas has hit this week. Maybe it is the village decorations or that we are doing our Christmas craft for this Friday's Christmas fair or that nativity practices are well under way, but there is a frisson of excitement; it is both wonderful and challenging! What is more life-affirming than seeing excitement through the eyes of 5 & 6 year olds? Challenging because good behaviour choices can get lost in the excitement. Good job they have great role models in the Rabbits' staff who focus on praising all those good choices yet keep boundaries tight so children feel at ease and regulated.
Self-regulation is huge, isn't it? Even for us adults at times! In Rabbits we work hard to improve our choices. We work on positive reinforcement so that children want to do the right thing, because it is the right thing to do and that they enjoy the praise and recognition (until they need it less and less from an adult and can give it to themselves). We have stickers (do they eat them?? They don't seem to have them at 3.20!), housepoints, the Golden book, our red sticker books (expect a full one every 1.5 academic years) and of course lots of love.
Talking of house points and sticker books...we are launching our Reading Challenge on Monday. Your child's reading progress relies on learning the code and practice. The code comes thick and fast in reception and Y1 and practice is daily. You listening to them read at least 5 times a week will move their learning on without a doubt, especially with our Little Wandle books that should provide confident (almost memorised) reading as they have read that book at least 3 times with us in school. So with that in mind, every time they read to you (even if for 5mins) and you write it in their reading record, they will move through the reading challenge display towards the 50 target reads goal. At that point they get a whopping 50 housepoints, a red sticker and a heap of cheers! They will then start again with another reward at the end until the reward is part but not the whole point, reading for pleasure because they can, is. Reading records will be checked on Mondays and/or Thursdays so please send them in. (I will also be encouraging the children to record that they read to you.
So what was I saying about Christmas feeling close? Oh yes, see you at 6 on Friday at the fair, antlers at the ready!
Mrs H
